


Language Key

by firefly124



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-17
Updated: 2011-01-17
Packaged: 2017-10-14 20:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/153252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefly124/pseuds/firefly124
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You’d think, what with the coming apocalypse and all, that Dawn could find other things to worry about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Language Key

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Still_Grr challenge "Mary Sue" on LiveJournal.

You’d think, what with the coming apocalypse and all, that Dawn could find other things to worry about. Like why they couldn’t find Buffy.

The thing that was bothering her, though, was that she’d lied. To Xander, of all people. But he’d looked at her all creeped out and asked when she got so good at Sumerian. No, she didn’t think she’d ever have a chance with him, but she still didn’t want him creeped out. So she’d lied and said it wasn’t in Sumerian anymore.

She darted a glance at him as they trudged back to the house. Not too creeped out just now. Just kinda down.

Considering how the Sumerian thing had weirded him out, it was kind of surprising that nobody, including Xander, had batted an eye over the ancient Turkish spell book thing. Then again, maybe everybody was just too busy being freaked out about the Buffy thing and the interrogating-the-Bringer thing and the we-have-no-idea-how-to-beat-this-First-Evil thing to bother with the Dawn-can-suddenly-read-all-kinds-of-obscure-languages thing.

It was kinda cool, really. Like having a super power of her own. She stood a little straighter just thinking about it. It’d just be nice if she could, you know, figure out whether it was just that she was actually smarter than Willow in the language department – because, hey, Willow had to read that spell book in translation! – or if it was something to do with the whole shiny green energy thing.

She really needed to stop saying “thing” all the time. If she was going to be Super Obscure Language Girl, she needed to sound a little more eloquent and a little less mall rat.

Super Obscure Language Girl? Also kinda bulky. And obviously made up and uncool. Definitely not a good name for someone whose super power was obscure languages. But Xander could come up with something better. If he knew.

Dawn glanced at him again and shuddered. Xander had more important things to worry about. Like how he had only one eye now. Maybe that’s why she felt bad about lying to him. Someday, it’d probably look cool. Right now, it just looked like it really hurt. A lot.

Someday she’d tell him though. Maybe then he’d see that she wasn’t just a creepy mystical energy thing that got turned into Buffy’s sister and had to get rescued all the time. Then he’d get over Anya finally, because he obviously so wasn’t yet, and they’d fall in love and get married and … probably fight demons for the rest of their very short lives, but that was beside the point. When she told him the truth, he’d realize she was actually cool. And he’d call her his Language Key or something, just to make a joke out of it.

It was good, having her own super power for this apocalypse. If it weren’t for her, they wouldn’t have known how to work the shadow casters. And they wouldn’t have found out about the arsenal that Faith and the others were raiding now. Okay, the whole portal thing from the shadow casters was weird and hadn’t actually resulted in Buffy getting more powers like she was supposed to, but they were going to get that weapon away from the Bringers, and that was going to make the difference. It was about time she got to help stop an apocalypse instead of helping to start one.

Xander had even stopped one, and he didn’t even have any cool powers. Yup, as soon as this one was all over, she’d tell him about her awesome translational prowess and how it had made all the difference this time. And then it would be all happily ever after for them, at least until the next apocalypse. Maybe that one would depend on mad translation skills of awesomeness too!

When they reached the front steps of her house, she stole one more look. He met her eyes and gave her a weak smile. She smiled back. It was a start.


End file.
